I have
just been burning the
midnight oil on a huge job for Duck Flat Wooden
Boats, but
happily (and
with a great sigh of relief) I have just (December 1, 2005) handed them
22 detail
drawings plus documentation on the building procedures for their Solar
Electric Mundoo III riverboat.

The boat was
featured in Woodenboat magazine a couple of
months ago and
they have faced a growing demand for plans, so have been cracking the
whip (in the kindest possible way) in my direction.

The original boat's
hullshape was based on the existing 4
stroke
outboard powered Mundoo 3, but in a sense, grew organically out of the
collaboration between the Ducks and the owners John and Gabby - with
just about every aspect of the boat changed apart from the main
hullshape.

The main hull
remained the same shape, but gained a raised
foredeck for
much more volume in the forward cabin, a nacelle beneath the main hull
was added to carry the batteries, motor and prop shaft (other major
changes were - a bow thruster was fitted, the cabin extended aft, the
galley enlarged and much shifting of interior spaces - not one bulkhead
from the
original design remains in the same position).

Original
Mundoo 3

Original
Mundoo 3 GA

The boat is a great
success in every sense - it far exceeded
the
technical expectations of the hybrid electric power with a higher
cruising speed and a higher yield from the solar panels than
expected.
On a reasonable summers day the "break even point" where the solar
panel output equals the motor's consumption is at about 4.5 knots.

The original brief
was for the solar power to be heavily
augmented by
hooking up to shore power most evenings of a cruise, but in actual use
has proved to be much more independent of outside power sources than
expected.

There is a portable
generator aboard if things get really
desperate, but it hasn't been used a great deal so far.

As almost every
detail of the boat was revised from the
original the
Ducks asked me initially to document the boat during the building
process so they had the information to build further boats.

Solar
Mundoo 3 GA

Then when the
founder of Duck Flat, Robert Ayliffe,
got
the opportunity to submit a major article on the solar version for
"Woodenboat" magazine it
quickly became clear that there was a large demand for plans.

Enter Storer (er,
me) and his trusty* computer to turn the
documentation of the
hull into a full plan that a first time builder could follow as well as
providing preliminary drawings of all the variants.

(*or
not
so trusty - as it turned
out - it died halfway through the building process, but no data was
lost!). A note on computers - I do all my design on a three
year
old laptop - when the old one died I was able to pick up another for
about $320. Probably little more than getting a tech person
to
look at repairing a newer model.
It really goes to show how the
hardware has sped ahead of the software. In other words - if
you
have great design ideas but someone tells you that you need a squillion
dollar computer and squillions of dollars of software - ignore them and
get stuck into it. It's all about the ideas - the purpose of
the
computer is simply to transform them for distribution.)

It
is some time since I have done a plan of this complexity, so I had
forgotten how the complexity somewhat overwhelms one; the effort of
holding the interrelationships of dozens of parts in my mind's eye is
rather intense - eg, just how the parts attaching to one bulkhead
relate to the adjacent bulkheads, or when finding that some crucial
part
like the cabinside is wider than normal plywood dimensions and then
having to go through and change just about every drawing.

The advantage of
designing on computer is considerable,
allowing a huge
amount of extra detail to be incorporated in the plans.
Comparing
the original Mundoo drawings (developed the old way - on paper) with
this new batch is like chalk and cheese - it makes it infinitely easier
(OK I am exaggerating ... much easier!) for a builder to make an
accurate boat with huge labour savings as the builder can see EXACTLY
where that next bit of wood goes. It is all left a bit up to
the
skill and imagination of the builder with conventional drawings.

Such is life.

Anyway . . . a
truly great boat - I had a good look on the
net a few
weeks ago and I think this is the most fully developed electric boat
plan available. It is a real boat for real use (and IS being
used
as I speak (write) cruising the Murray River and its extensive
backwaters) and must be one of the largest commercially available solar
boats (or plans) available.

It was great to be
involved! Thanks Duck
Flat! Thanks John and Gabby!

Now it's time to
catch up on some sleep!!!

The
smaller and simpler Mundoo 2Also see the EPOXY and Boatbuilding FAQ
for more detailed info about the methods a.nd troubleshooting and
preventing problems For
more information
about the Mundoo 3 Solar Electric, the
smaller Mundoo 2 and conventionally powered versions contact Duck Flat Wooden
Boats